Forbidden

by Tori Carrington

  Rachel wrinkled her nose. The action when combined with her short hair made her look all of sixteen. “No. I mean, yes, we are, but that’s not what’s bothering me tonight.”

  She picked up one of the bouquets and plucked at the fake flowers, presumably to straighten them. “Do you like this one? Gabe hates it. It’s my favorite.”

  Leah tried to hold back a smile but failed. Rachel frowned at her. “That’s the problem? The flowers?” Leah asked.

  Rachel dropped her arms and the bouquet flopped into her lap. “That’s the problem. The wine’s the problem. The color of the bridesmaids’ dresses is the problem.” She leaned closer, which put her flush against Leah. “By the way, I think you’d look great in red at the wedding. You never wear red anymore. Why is that?”

  Leah wasn’t comfortable with the question so she avoided it. “So you and Gabe aren’t seeing eye to eye on the arrangements then.”

  Rachel stuck out her tongue and made a loud raspberry sound. “Eye to eye? He’s lucky to have any eyes left after today. I mean, here I am, trying to run my legal office when I’m not in council chambers, and working my butt off to try to put this wedding together and he just swoops down and pooh-poohs everything I choose. ‘You handle the arrangements, baby, I trust your judgment.”’ She snorted in an indelicate manner then appeared shocked the sound had come from her. “It’s a good thing he’s so damn good in bed or I’d call the whole thing off.”

  Leah put her hand over her mouth to keep from smiling.

  “Are you laughing? You’re laughing at me, aren’t you?” Rachel accused.

  Leah shook her head.

  Her sister gave a long sigh, put her feet up on the coffee table between the two couches then sank into the cushions. “That’s all right. If I were you I’d probably be laughing at me, too.”

  She sipped the water from her glass and considered Leah over the rim. “So what are you doing here, anyway? Don’t you have a daughter to raise? An ex-husband to reconcile with?”

  Leah kicked off her shoes and mimicked her sister’s actions by putting her feet up on the coffee table and slumping against the cushions. “Is that the way you see my life, too? A list of tracks?” She picked up the bouquet from Rachel’s lap. “That’s the second time I’ve heard that today. ‘Doing my laundry is part of your job,’ is I think how Sami put it.”

  “Did you make her eat the laundry?”

  Leah smiled and turned her head in her sister’s direction. “No. But I will admit the thought crossed my mind.”

  Rachel leaned closer so that their heads were touching. “Sounds like your day was pretty crappy, as well.”

  “Crappy about covers it.” She shifted slightly. “Rachel, what do you think about Dan?”

  Leah wasn’t entirely sure where the question had come from, but now that she’d asked it, she was curious what her sister’s answer would be.

  “How do you mean?” Rachel asked carefully. “What do I think of Dan as a man in general? Or as your husband?”

  “Both.”

  Rachel reached for the bouquet and Leah gave it to her, watching as her sister straightened the silk blossoms. “I don’t know. He’s okay, I guess.”

  “Just okay?”

  Rachel shrugged. “I remember the first time you brought him home to meet Mom and Dad.” She rubbed her nose with the back of her hand. “Mom said something along the lines of, ‘My, what a nice-looking young man he is. And doesn’t he just appear to adore Leah?”’ She shifted her head so she could look at Leah. “And I remember thinking, ‘Yeah, but how does Leah feel about him?”’

  Leah averted her gaze, fussing with a fake rose Rachel had overlooked. The words sounded too similar to what J.T. has asked her that night in the supermarket parking lot. Do you love him?

  “Dad liked him.”

  Rachel smiled. “Dad loved Dan.” She gestured with her hand. “They had that whole legal thing in common. I think Dad looked upon Dan as his adopted son. One that would follow in his footsteps and one day become judge.”

  Leah smiled, remembering the relationship between her father and her husband. “I think that’s what Dan wants, too.”

  Leah glanced at where her and her sister’s feet swayed together then apart again on the coffee table.

  “Are you having second thoughts about reconciling?” Rachel asked quietly.

  Leah simply nodded, then bit hard on her bottom lip to keep from spilling the reason why.

  “Then don’t do it.”

  She squinted at her sister. It was the wine talking. It had to be the wine.

  Rachel shifted until she was sitting up, her feet tucked underneath her. “I’m serious, Lee. If you’re having second thoughts, don’t you dare continue on with the reconciliation. It wouldn’t be fair to Dan. And, more importantly, it wouldn’t be fair to you.”

  Leah swallowed hard as she put her feet on the floor and sat up straighter. “But Sami wants us to be a family again so much.”

  “And in three years Sami will want a car. Does that mean you’re going to buy her one?”

  Leah rolled her eyes.

  “I’m serious, Lee. Before you know it Sami will be a teenager with a whole different slew of problems that have nothing to do with you and Dan. She’ll be dating, planning her own future, thumbing through wedding magazines. And when that happens, where will you and Dan be? Heading for divorce court again?”

  What her sister said made so much sense Leah didn’t know how she hadn’t seen it herself.

  “Besides, silly, you guys are already a family. No, you may not live under the same roof, but you’ll always be Sami’s mother. And Dan will always be her father. And she’ll always be your daughter and Dan’s daughter.” She shrugged as she put the bouquet back down. “I think it’s time you admit that you’re sick of being Miss Suzie Homemaker and start concentrating on a life of your own.”

  She reached for a box of something on the corner of the table. Leah realized it was chocolate. Rachel took her time picking one out for herself, then held it out to Leah who did the same. They both chewed on the candy thoughtfully.

  “I have a life, you know.”

  Rachel smiled. “I know. You’re going back to school. That’s a good thing.”

  Leah shook her head as she chose another chocolate. “No. I’m not talking about just that.”

  And, surprisingly, she wasn’t talking about J.T., either.

  “Don’t tell me you’re hooking on the weekends down on Jefferson.”

  Leah threw her head back and laughed. “No worries there.” She licked her fingers then reached for the wine glass with water in it. “I’ve been thinking about opening up a…lingerie shop.”

  Rachel was openly surprised. “What?”

  Leah was a bit offended. “Don’t act so shocked.”

  “Why not? That’s exactly what I’m feeling right now.” She grabbed the water bottle instead of the glass and nearly downed half the two liters of liquid. “I mean, come on, Leah. Over the past eleven years I haven’t heard you talk about anything but Sami, the house and Dan.”

  Leah shrugged. “So?”

  “So…so…opening a lingerie shop…” She suddenly bounced enthusiastically on the couch. “Oh, tell me about it! I mean, where did you get the idea? Where would you open it? What would you sell?”

  Leah laughed, warming to the idea herself. She told her sister about meeting Ginger Wasserman five years ago when she’d set out to spice up her and Dan’s lagging love life. The attempt to heat things up between the sheets had fizzled, but her friendship with Ginger had flourished. So much so that when Leah suggested Ginger expand, she hadn’t hesitated to put her money where her mouth was and become a silent partner of the establishment.

  And now Ginger was encouraging her to open a satellite shop in the West End. Something more upscale and trendy, but with the same Women Only flavor.

  “Oh, my god, I went to that place once,” Rachel whispered, her eyes round. “Isn’t that where they offer lesson
s in…in…”

  “Massage therapy. Sexual acts. Belly dancing. You name it, WO offers it.”

  “I went there with Jenny. You remember Jenny—I went to high school with her. Anyway, part of her bachelorette party was a lesson in how to give a blow job that would blow his mind.”

  Leah smiled. “That would be the place.” She cleared her throat and took the water from her sister, then drank some. “Although I don’t think I’ll be offering the same types of services in the West End.”

  “Oh, why not?” Rachel was excited. “It is for ‘women only,’ right? So it should cater to all of women’s fantasies.”

  And so ensued an hour-long discussion on Leah’s possible plans. Plans that didn’t include Dan or Sami or J.T. Plans that were strictly for her and her alone.

  At some point during the conversation both of them had stretched out again, their feet on the coffee table, their heads touching as they stared at each other’s toenail polish.

  “You know what this means, don’t you?” Rachel asked quietly.

  Leah swallowed hard. “That Dan and Sami are going to hate it?’

  Interestingly enough, she didn’t think J.T. would. Not because she didn’t know what he did or didn’t like. She just had a feeling that he would support her in anything she wanted to do.

  “Well, there is that.”

  Leah lightly knocked her sister’s foot.

  “No, what this means is that you, big sister, are going to have give me one hell of a great wedding present.” She laughed. “Well, that and a big discount.”

  LATER THAT NIGHT, LEAH LAY in her gigantic bed, her arms crossed behind her head as she stared at the ceiling. For the first time in a very long time, she was smiling. Not because of something Sami did. Or J.T. Or even her sister. But because of something she was going to do.

  She rubbed the bottom of her feet against the soft Egyptian cotton sheets and glanced at the clock. After eleven. Sami was already in bed asleep. Everything in the house that needed to be done was done. And she knew a nearly overwhelming urge to begin implementing her plans as soon as she could.

  The telephone on the nightstand rang. She gave a start. Dan? It seemed likely. He was the only one who would call this late.

  She picked up on the second ring.

  “Leah?”

  Definitely not Dan.

  Her heart did a little flip in her chest and her palms instantly dampened. “J.T.?”

  She heard what sounded like him moving the phone from one ear to the other then he cleared his voice. “Sorry to call so late. I hope I didn’t wake you.”

  “No, no. I wasn’t sleeping.”

  “I know. I can see your light on from here.”

  Leah sat up in bed and looked at the sheer-covered windows overlooking the street. She crossed the room and pulled back one of the gauzy curtains.

  “To your left. Behind the van.”

  Leah made him out as he flicked his headlight on and off. She felt ridiculously like a schoolgirl who would be caught by her father at any minute. “What are you doing out there?”

  “I couldn’t sleep, either,” he said quietly.

  “Give me a couple of minutes, I’ll be right down.”

  “No. Don’t,” J.T. said. “That’s not why I called.”

  Leah returned to the window, wishing she could make out his expression in the dark. “I don’t understand….”

  A soft chuckle then, “I called to ask you out for a date, Leah. You know, dinner. Maybe a movie.”

  Her stomach tightened. “What?” she whispered.

  “Tomorrow night. Say at about seven?”

  J.T. had driven to her house at eleven at night to ask her out on a date.

  Leah was half afraid she had turned into that teenage girl sneaking around behind her parents’ back.

  Dan would be picking Sami up at around six tomorrow for the weekend. That would give her plenty of time to get ready to do whatever J.T. had in mind.

  Of course she had been hoping to have that talk with Dan first….

  “Leah, don’t say no.”

  She smiled and turned her face from the window in case he could see her. “Yes,” she said. “Yes, J.T., I’d love to go out on a date with you tomorrow night.”

  “Good. I’m glad to hear it.”

  The line went silent as Leah got lost in her own thoughts. It had been a long time since she’d been out on a date. And the mere idea of going out on one with J.T. made her feel tingly all over.

  She walked back to sit on her bed, running her hand over the soft bedding. “But that’s tomorrow. What about tonight?”

  His answering chuckle tickled her ear. “Tonight you need to get some rest, Leah. So shut off that light, get into bed and I’ll pick you up at seven tomorrow night.”

  Leah drew her hand from her neck down the front of her silky nightgown, almost feeling like J.T. could see her. Which was ridiculous. He couldn’t see her through the sheers. “And you? What are you going to do tonight, Josh?”

  She thought she heard him swallow hard. “I’m going to go back to the house and take a long, cold shower.” A heartbeat of a pause, then, “Good night, Leah. Sweet dreams.”

  Her grip tightened on the receiver. “Good night.”

  As she hung up the phone she knew her dreams would be very sweet, indeed.

  12

  LEAH WAS EASILY THE MOST beautiful woman in the place. And J.T. was awed that he was the one she’d chosen to be with.

  “This is nice,” she said quietly, taking in the atmosphere of the upscale restaurant in downtown Toledo.

  “You haven’t been here before?” he asked.

  “No. Well, yes, actually, I have. We…I used to come here a lot.”

  “With Dan.”

  She looked everywhere but at him. “Um, yes.”

  He’d made her uncomfortable. Damn. When he’d chosen the upscale restaurant, he hadn’t considered that she might have been there with her ex-husband.

  “We can go somewhere else,” he suggested.

  Her dark eyes widened. “No. I mean, unless you want to go somewhere else.”

  She had on a simple black dress that was anything but simple on her. It skimmed her trim figure, emphasizing the deep valley between her breasts, and the shapeliness of her legs as she crossed and re-crossed her legs at the elegant, linen-draped table.

  “Oh, God,” she said, her gaze catching on something just over his shoulder.

  “Your ex?” he asked, his back stiffening.

  “Worse. My sister.”

  LEAH WANTED TO SLINK UNDER the table and hide. Not because she was ashamed to be seen with J.T. Rather, she knew there was going to be hell to pay that she hadn’t breathed word to her sister last night about J.T. being back in town.

  She didn’t delude herself into thinking Rachel wouldn’t recognize J.T. During that summer so long ago her fourteen-year-old sister had been all gangly legs and doe eyes and had followed J.T. around like a puppy dog.

  And Rachel was the only one who knew that J.T. was the man she’d had the affair with a year and a half ago.

  “Look who’s here, honey,” Rachel said happily, none too discreetly trying to see the dark-haired man. “It’s Leah and…”

  She finally neared the table enough to see J.T.

  “Oh, my God! Josh, is that you?”

  Leah watched as J.T. rose to greet her sister, looking particularly yummy in the fitted dark suit he wore. Yes, she’d admitted when she’d joined him on the back of his bike, he cleaned up very well. It had been all she could do not to drag him into the house with her rather than go out on the date he had planned.

  J.T.’s eyes were wary and amused as he considered her sister. “Rachel. It’s been a while.”

  He took Rachel’s hands in his and kissed her cheek, every bit the gentleman.

  Leah finally found her legs and rose from the table as well, greeting first Gabe, then her sister.

  “You little devil you,” Rachel whispered into her
ear under the pretense of kissing her cheek. “You are in so much trouble.”

  Leah’s tight smile turned genuine. “You have no idea.”

  They turned to find Gabe and J.T. quietly discussing the NBA playoffs. Rachel took Leah’s arm and leaned in. “Mmm. Delicious, aren’t they?”

  Leah had to admit they were. J.T. easily matched Gabe’s six-foot-two height and was even wider across the chest and shoulders than her sister’s fiancé. Both dark and mysterious, she guessed that neither would last a minute alone in a bar without some woman or other hitting on them.

  One of the owners approached them. “Would you four like to dine together?”

  Leah’s gaze flew to J.T.’s face. This was their first date. She didn’t want to spend it with her overcurious sister and her fiancé, no matter how much she loved them.

  “Oh, let’s!” Rachel’s eyes sparkled in devilish delight, her motivations clearly selfish.

  “Actually, Leah and I were just discussing that we’re going to be late for our show.” He took two tickets out of his inside jacket pocket, glanced at them, then put them back into his pocket. “Another time, maybe?”

  Leah practically sighed with relief as her sister made a face at her. As they hugged goodbye, Rachel said for Leah’s ears only, “You little minx. I expect details. Tonight. The instant you get home.”

  “Who’s to say I’ll be alone?” Leah whispered back, smiling at J.T. over her shoulder.

  Rachel pretended shock, then reluctantly stood back to allow Leah to say goodbye to Gabe. Leah took J.T.’s arm, trying not to run from the restaurant.

  “I know a great Italian place,” Leah said, laughing as J.T. held the door open for her.

  J.T. RELAXED INTO THE BURGUNDY leather booth, the environment of the Italian restaurant Leah had directed him to much more to his liking, although interestingly enough he was coming to feel comfortable with her wherever they were. There were no corny Italian murals on the walls, or plaster columns. Merely a warm atmosphere to enjoy a good meal and quiet conversation.